Hummingbird Heartbeat
by I'vebeenLOKI'Dyetagain
Summary: Like everything else he did, Tommy bled out quickly.
1. Chapter 1

**So, I've been reading Young Avengers comics, and I LOVE them. And THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF THEM. So basically I wrote this because I am totally obsessed with Tommy Sheperd and I cannot get enough of him. And there's next to no bromance between him and Billy Kaplan in the comics, and I love brotherly bromance and angst, so I wrote some. And I wanted more Speed awesomeness, because I feel like he is totally under-appreciated in the comics. And nobody ever asks him if he's okay (except for Clint Barton that one time in Siege... but none of the Young Avengers do). **

**This takes place sometime after Billy develops the theory of him and Tommy being spiritual twins, but before the original team of Young Avengers breaks up, and while Tommy's still fairly new to the Young Avengers. So _definitely_ before the events of The Children's Crusade.  
**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

**_Hummingbird Heartbeat_**

* * *

_Faster! _Tommy thought, as he ran swifter than the speed of sound, dodging blasts and disarming aliens—because they were fighting crazy aliens _again _for what felt like the billionth time and _still _the Young Avengers wouldn't let him vaporize the aliens, even they were _aliens _and not human and this species seemed to be a hive-mind anyhow so it's not like he would be ending any autonomous lives and besides these aliens were trying to _kill __**them**_**.**

So he only vaporized aliens when he was sure nobody would _see, _because if he didn't get caught then he couldn't get in trouble, and he didn't want to get in trouble because the Young Avengers had already made it clear he wasn't really needed, or even liked, that he'd only been broken out of juvie so that he could rescue Kaplan's boyfriend and they were only keeping him around because he looked like Kaplan and was apparently his spiritual twin or whatever, and he _knew _that they didn't actually care about him because they _never _asked if he was okay or showed even an ounce of concern for his welfare. They'd take any excuse to kick Tommy off the team and he knew nobody would defend him, and if Tommy didn't have the Young Avengers then he didn't know what he would do with himself, because they were literally all he had, and maybe he didn't exactly like them, either, but he knew he liked being a superhero. He liked helping people.

And right now these aliens were trying to kill them all, probably to take over the Earth or something stupid like that, like every other alien race that attacked them—well, except for the Kree, who were trying to prevent the Skrulls from ruling the Earth, but _still—_and they had these stupid guns that fired laser-bullets that were made out of energy globs or something that he couldn't blow up by vibrating the atoms, and they still acted like regular bullets the way they tore through flesh, but at least the lasers were slower than _he _was, but he still _needed to run __**faster**_**. **

"Speed," Patriot called authoritatively as he fought on the ground, slamming aliens in the face with his red, white and blue shield, "I need you to get that sh—"

"Wayaheadofyou," Tommy blurted as another alien ship pulled into view, and Tommy ran straight up the side of a skyscraper and jumped onto the ship, because these ships were made of a solid material that he _could _blow up and technically he could just vaporize the ship and not any of the aliens inside it but why the hell would he do that and who would know if he didn't?

So as the alien ship went _KA-BOOM _in a burst of glorious explosiveness, Tommy leapt off and landed on the top of another skyscraper and rolled and _thank goodness _that his unique physiology let him withstand high-velocity impacts as he superspeeded, because he got right back to his feet without even a bruise and ran back down the sheer side of the skyscraper back into the battle to kick more alien ass with the rest of the Young Avengers.

Hulkling was flying around in his big green form with the gargoyle wings, punching aliens.

Patriot was bashing with his shield, and had stolen an extraterrestrial gun and was using it against the stupid aliens, and oh hey did that mean Tommy could start vaporizing them for real now?

Hawkeye was shooting them with various arrows, of course, and as Tommy glanced at her, watching her arrow fly in slow-motion and then explode in an orange and red fiery burst that blew alien guts everywhere, he figured _**awesome**__ I can start vaporizing the aliens now guess the Young Avengers finally realized they were aliens with a hive-mind. _

And Tommy's brother, Wiccan the Wonderful Witch, was floating in the dusty air with his hood up, casting his face in dark shadow while his eyes glowed a mystical blue, and he was hitting aliens with hex bolts or whatever.

Which, Tommy figured, really was a waste of Billy's reality-altering powers. Why didn't Billy just wish all the aliens nonexistent or something?

But Billy was ever the boring, responsible one, so Tommy figured Billy had his reasons, and that it was probably a good thing that Tommy had superspeed rather than chaos magic, because if he did have chaos magic he would be warping the world to his every whim.

"Speed," Hawkeye called from her newfound skyscraper perch that Hulkling had dropped her off on, "I need you to evac—"

"YeahIseeitIgotit," Tommy said, noticing the building full of terrified people that needed to get evacuated, as the alien invasion spread outwards through the city.

_Faster, Thomas! _he thought to himself, as he zipped through the building, grabbing people and dropping them off several blocks away from the mayhem, before zooming back for more civilians. _You can be faster! _

There was so, so many aliens that needed to be dealt with, and so, so many people that needed to be protected, and even with the rest of the world moving at a crawl around him, there was still _too much, _and try as he might Tommy couldn't be everywhere at once enough to save everyone and kick the crap out of all the aliens, while simultaneously being nowhere at once enough to never get hit.

But with all the civilians evacuated out of the building and safely out of harm's way for the time being, Tommy raced back through the thick of the fray, disintegrating the stupid aliens before they even knew he was there, and he was nothing but a green and silver blur that was registered a few seconds after he'd already passed.

And then the mothership was rearing out of the cloudcover, turning its huge machine laser-guns on them all, and _where the hell were the actual Avengers when they were needed?! _New York was being attacked by aliens _again _and the Young Avengers were the only ones there?! And not even all of the Young Avengers—Stature and Vision were off doing something else that he couldn't bother to remember.

_Why did this kind of thing always happen to them?! _The universe clearly wanted them dead, it seemed—but he sure as hell wasn't gonna let the universe kill them without one helluva fight.

The huge guns were firing, and though the laser-bullets were moving in slow-motion compared to the speed at which Tommy was running, there was still _way-too-freaking-many_, and all of the Young Avengers were going to get caught in the fire if Tommy didn't do something and do it _now. _

Kate was still on the top of a skyscraper and would be first hit, so Tommy rushed up and grabbed her and then ran down and phased her through the wall of a concrete building and left her where she wouldn't get hit.

Next was Teddy, who was still flying around, but it was like he was suspended near perfectly still in the air, in the process of turning towards the mothership, and Tommy leapt up and grabbed his foot and pulled him down faster than the speed of gravity, sticking him in the same place as Kate.

The laser-bullets were still crawling down, a torrent of them, a deluge; the sky was weeping with them—sobbing grossly with them.

Eli was next, because he was on the ground and Tommy spotted him before he spotted his brother.

When he placed Eli in the concrete building with the other two Young Avengers, they all had the very same expressions on as when he'd found them.

And yet the world was still moving too fast for Tommy's liking, and as he sped up to Billy the bullets were already bearing down upon him and Billy was just staring at them with those glowing blue eyes and looked as if he was just starting to open his mouth to say some spell, but Billy would never be fast enough.

So Tommy had to be.

And as he grabbed his brother, the bullets were _everywhere _and Tommy clutched Billy close to his chest as he leaned forward and _ran _for all he was worth, but he still felt the lasers digging into his back and legs and arms, piercing his skin painfully slowly but too fast to avoid because it would have been like trying to dodge rain when it was _pouring buckets _and there was hardly any air between the droplets of water.

But Tommy did his best to shield Billy with his own body as he ran, since he knew for a fact that he could handle pain far better than his brother, and everybody would cry if Wiccan the Wondrous Witch got injured, and Tommy _hated _dealing with people crying, while they would only blink if Tommy got hurt and maybe tease him for not being fast enough to dodge the bullets—and that was definitely preferable to tears.

Tommy's heart was pumping fifty times a second and he could feel the blood gushing from his injuries and _damn _his pain reception for being just as fast as the rest of him, it would be so much easier if he could just run so fast he left all pain behind—but he wasn't that fast and his body was _searing _but the concrete building was up ahead, and Tommy couldn't help but wonder, as he vibrated himself and Billy through the wall, if he left atoms of blood between the atoms of concrete.

And then he was dropping Billy to the ground as gently as he could manage, and oh damn but he'd never seen Billy's cape so _red_ before.

The world caught up to him as he fell to his knees.

The building rattled as the lasers hit it. There was the smell of burning and of blood, and Hakweye, Hulkling, Patriot, and Wiccan all blinked as they suddenly found themselves inexplicably inside of a concrete building, when they'd just been outside, on a roof, on the ground, or in the air.

"What the hell?!" Eli demanded.

"How did we—" Kate started.

"What's going on?" Teddy asked.

"Oy," Billy said.

Their faces were masks of confusion, bewilderment, consternation, perturbation, bafflement.

They're voices blurred around Tommy as he curled up on his side, biting back a pitiful moan as the pain completely permeated his body, and he could feel his blood leaving him, hot and wet. The world was white behind his eyelids, and he tried not to whimper. Oh but it _hurt... _

But he'd saved everyone. He'd been fast enough, he hadn't _failed. _And that was all that really mattered.

"Are you okay?" Eli asked Kate.

"I'm fine," she answered. "And you?"

"I'm okay."

"Teddy, are you alright?" Billy said, concerned, crawling over to his boyfriend.

"I'm fine. Billy, are you—? _Billy you're hurt!" _Teddy's green face was horrified as realized that Billy was soaked through and dripping with blood.

"What?" Billy asked, confused, glancing down at himself and only just noticing that he was dripping with hot, sanguine blood. He looked back at his terrified boyfriend, dark eyebrows furrowed. "I'm not... I don't hurt," Billy said, blinking perplexedly. "The blood's not mine."

"I'm... still alive..." Tommy gasped through gritted teeth. "If any... of you... were _wondering..._ about me..._"_

"Oh gods, _Tommy!" _Billy cried, as he saw his brother huddled on the floor in a growing puddle of scarlet, his outfit tattered and completely blood-soaked, and his skin that wasn't coated in red was deathly pale. _"What happened?!"_

Kate gave a horrified gasp when she saw Speed, her hands flying to her mouth. Teddy's eyes eyes widened and his breath hitched. Eli stared.

"What do you... _think...?"_ Tommy choked out, trying to push himself into a sitting position, and choking on blood that was welling in his mouth. "I just... saved... your lives... _ingrates..."_

The world, slightly tinted orange from his goggles, was starting to darken and swim with black.

Then Billy was there, hands flitting frantically over him without touching him, muttering something under his breath that Tommy couldn't make out.

The last thing Tommy saw before the world went completely black were brown eyes glowing a bright, vivid blue, and he hoped those weren't tears he saw streaking down Billy's cheeks.

* * *

"_IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal," _Billy chanted, over and over and over, and he thought perhaps he'd never wanted anything more in his entire life than he wanted Tommy to heal in that moment, wanted Tommy to live and be okay.

Tommy's green eyes had closed, and blood dripped from his parted lips.

Billy pressed his fingers gently against Tommy's throat, feeling the hummingbird-fast pulse beneath his fingers, feeling the irregular rhythm as Tommy's heart tried to keep his body alive, feeling Tommy's heartbeat weaken and falter and fade.

Hot blue was brimming in Billy's vision and trickling down his cheeks.

"_IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal."_

In the back of Billy's mind, the part of him that wasn't freaking out over the fact that _oh gods his brother had just saved them all and now he was dying _was realizing that he hadn't even _known _that he cared so much about Tommy.

Tommy was annoying as hell, and seemed more than a little sociopathic. He was always butting into Billy and Teddy's private moments. He'd made it clear he had no problem with killing. He was mocking. Erratic. Mercurial. Infuriating.

Billy had tried to reach out, he really had, but Tommy always pushed him away.

And yet? Seeing Tommy like this, looking so fragile in a heap on the floor, unconscious and bleeding out—Tommy, who was always so _untouchable, _both mentally and physically—Billy had never been so _terrified _in his entire life (well, except for when his boyfriend got kidnapped).

And he realized, as much as he would be loath to admit it... gods, he _couldn't lose Tommy. _

Because as infuriating as Tommy was, Tommy was his twin, his _brother. _Billy was sure of it.

And Billy felt his brother's heart stop.

A surge of horror and fear and sorrow and desperation slammed into him like a tidal wave, crashing through his ribs and knocking the breath from his lungs in a gasp of, _"Iwanthimtolive."_

Billy felt Tommy's heart start beating again, a faint and tentative rhythm like an inexperienced drumming on a drum-set they thought was going to fall apart at any second.

"_IwanthimtohealIwanthimtoliveIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoliveIwanthimtohealIwanthimtolive," _Billy chanted, over, and over, and over.

Slowly, it seemed, far too slowly, Tommy's wounds began to cease their steady bleeding and knit themselves closed.

The other Young Avengers were standing over him, probably saying something, but Billy didn't register them. All his focus was on his injured brother.

As Billy spoke his magical mantra, he reached out gingerly to brush a strand of silver-white hair from Tommy's pallid face.

"_IwanthimtohealIwanthimtohealIwanthimtoheal."_

Bleeding slowed. Muscles knit together. Skin regrew. It was like watching footage that had been sped up, being able to watch something that usually was so slow that the movement wasn't even noticeable when you watched it continuously (like the sun traveling across the sky; like a flower blossom blooming; like the seasons changing; like a child growing up).

Billy didn't stop reciting his spell until Tommy was completely healed. Pulling his still blood-soaked brother into his arms, Billy held him close in a way Tommy would _never _allow if he was conscious, and though Tommy was his twin and the same size as him, Tommy in that moment felt so _small. _

"Why isn't he waking up?" Billy rasped.

"He's lost a lot of blood," Kate pointed out, paling slightly as she glanced at the large puddle of sanguine that coated the floor. "He probably needs sleep, food, water. Maybe an IV. He needs to replace all that blood, and I can only imagine that the healing, even with the aid of your magic, still takes a toll. Not to mention how fast he must have been running to save us all from the bullets in less than a second. He must have been pushing himself to his very limits."

The building rattled around them.

"Guys," Eli said, glancing towards the door anxiously, "The aliens are still out there."

Billy was still cradling his brother's body to his chest.

"Billy," Teddy said, placing a large green hand on his boyfriend's shoulder, his voice gentle. "Tommy's going to be okay. But we need to deal with the aliens."

Now that Tommy was out of danger and the cold blue fear drained from Billy's bones, it was replaced by a hot, scarlet anger that tinted his vision.

This was all the aliens' fault. Those aliens had almost _killed his brother!_

Billy set his jaw. Laying Tommy down gently on the floor, Billy turned to his boyfriend, ordering, "Watch him."

"Billy—" Teddy started.

"_Watch him!" _Billy ordered again, and blue crackled from his eyes.

And then Billy was sweeping past the other Young Avengers, energy gathering at his fingertips, surging through his veins like an ocean, a powerful wave of chaos that roared like thunder in his ears and tasted like lightning on his tongue. It was an uncontrollable force of nature, and Billy set it free.

The aliens never knew what hit them.


	2. Chapter 2

Like everything else he did, Tommy woke up quickly.

And he woke up just as he was being laid down on a bed, and as somebody started to try and peel his crusted, bloody outfit from his body, and so of course as his eyes shot open he swatted the hand away and the first thing he said was, "NonoundressingmeI'dliketokeepmyclothesonyoupervert."

Brown eyes stared back at him, and Billy snorted, pointing out, "First of all, your clothes are all tattered and bloody. And second of all, I'm your twin, so you don't have _anything_ that I haven't seen."

"Ugh," Tommy groaned, letting his head fall back, " 'llundressmyselfandyoucanundressyourselfbecauseyou'reatleastasbloodyasme ?"

The next thing he knew, Billy was hugging him and crying silently, and he blinked as he registered the fact that he was lying on Billy's bed in the Kaplan's house, and his body felt achy and his mouth felt like the Sahara Desert, and if zero equaled starving then his stomach felt like it was on about negative fifteen, and Billy was still hugging him and sobbing into his shoulder and saying, "I thought you were going to _die, _Tommy! You were dying, for a moment your heart stopped and you actually _died! _I thought I was going to _lose you!"_ and who knew Billy even cared? But ugh, tears, were they really necessary? And oh look now Teddy was walking into the room and he was blond and not green anymore, and what was going on?

The last thing he remembered was—oh right, fighting aliens and saving the Young Avengers' ungrateful asses from a bazillion stupid alien laser-bullets, and a lot of blood and pain and... Billy crying? And wait, Billy was crying _again?_

"Get off me, ya moron," Tommy grumbled, trying to shove Billy away from him. "I don't do hugs. Or tears. Go glomp your Teddy Bear over there, that's what he's for, right?"

"Har har," Teddy said, coming over and placing a tray on the coffee table, with a glass of water, a bowl of soup and a plate of toast. "I see somebody's feeling better."

"Gimmegimmegimme," Tommy said eagerly, leaning half off the couch to try and reach the tray, only that Billy was _still _holding on to him and keeping him pinned down, but then he finally let go and wiped his face with a sleeve, and now Tommy's shoulder was all wet from Kaplan's tears, but it didn't really matter because _food _and_ water_, and water had never tasted so sweet and soup and toast had never tasted so damn _good. _

It was gone in the blink of an eye—well, the blink of an eye for Billy and Teddy, anyway.

"Sowhat'sthedealdidwewin?I'massumingwewonbecausewe'reallstillalive," Tommy said, licking the buttery crumbs from his fingers. "Heydoyouhaveanymoreofthatsoup?NevermindI'llgogetsome."

And then he was up off the couch and starting to leave the room—and then the world was swaying around him and his legs were buckling, and Teddy was catching him in those large strong arms and just _ugh _this sucked.

"Tommy!" Billy cried.

"Whoadizzy," Tommy moaned, as Teddy held him steady. "FeelalllightlikeI'mgonnacrumbletodustandblowawayorsomething."

"And yet you can still talk a few thousand miles a second," Teddy remarked wryly, helping Tommy back over to the bed and sitting him down. "But you lost a lot of blood, so your blood sugar is really low, so it's probably better if you take it slow for a bit."

"Sit tight, I'll go get some more soup," Billy offered, running off to the kitchen.

"Takeitslow?Doyouevenknowwhoyou'retalkingto?"

"And by the way," Teddy said, crossing his arms as he looked down severely at the speedster. "Don't _ever _do that again."

"Dowhatagain?Talkreallyfast?Orrytogogetmyselfsomethingtoeatfromthekitchen?BecauseI'mprettysureIcan'tdoanythingaboutthefirstone,andthesecond—"

"No," Teddy said, slowly and carefully, lips pursed in a frown. "Almost get yourself killed. I have _never __seen _Billy so freaked out."

"Should'veseenhimwhenyougotkidnapped," Tommy shrugged, because really how was Billy freaking out not normal? And why the hell was Teddy still glaring at him? If anything bad happened to Teddy then Billy would no doubt freak out even _more _than he'd apparently freaked out over Tommy, so really Teddy couldn't speak, the hypocrite.

But Teddy was _still _glaring at him. "Seriously," he said, "After he saved you, Billy wished all the aliens out of existence, and I can't even _imagine _what he would have done if you'd _died_, instead of, you know, _almost_ died."

"You're _welcome," _Tommy drawled, enunciating slowly, "For, you know, _saving all your lives in a split second." _

If Tommy hadn't done what he'd done, they would all be _dead_, and it's not like he had another option or any time to come up with anything because he literally had like _less than a second _and there was like a bazillion bullets, and if he hadn't saved them then Billy would never be able to freak out again, so really what was the problem?

"And you know what, Altman?" Tommy continued, "You can just shut up right now, because we both know that I would do it again in a heartbeat."

Teddy at least had the grace to look slightly abashed, but before he could apologize or continue berating or whatever he planned to do, Billy was walking back into the room with more soup and Tommy said, "YouknowIhatebeingpamperedlikethisugh," which was about the closest he'd let himself come to saying 'thank you,' and he made a disgusted face that was there and gone probably before they even saw it, before Tommy dug in, because _damn _was he _starving_, and this low blood sugar thing really sucked and he needed to be able to run again without feeling like he was going to pass out because not being able to run made him feel weak and helpless and pathetic and he _hated _that feeling.

"I feel disgusting," Tommy announced, the bowl now empty and back on the tray, as he glanced down at himself and made a face, because his brother had been understating things when he'd said that Tommy's outfit was bloody and tattered. "I call first shower, because I shower fastest, and you are both snails and spend like an _hour _in the shower—and oh hey that rhymed!—okay?Okay."

And then Tommy was gone, and there was a _bang! _as he stumbled and crashed into the bathroom counter. "Thatwasn'tme!Itwascompletelythesink'sfault!"

* * *

Tommy's shower took less than a minute.

When he came out, clean and dressed in a pair of Billy's jeans and one of Billy's Avenger t-shirts, he looked infinitely better. His skin was still a bit paler than usual, but it was no longer caked with blood, and his hair was once again a pure silver-white, and stuck up in crazy spikes from him drying it super fast with a towel. He smelled of jasmine shampoo.

"All yours, little brother," Tommy said, waving his hand vaguely at the open bathroom door, steam wafting into the hallway.

"Hey, that's one of my favorite shirts!" Billy griped, glaring.

Tommy snorted. "Of course it is. It has Thor on it. Now go take a shower, you stink, and you're covered in my blood."

Sighing, Billy shot one last glare at his twin, before heading into the bathroom.

Teddy was showering in the other bathroom down the hall, so Billy didn't rush his own shower, taking the time to get himself fully clean, and then taking some more time just standing under the hot stream of water and letting it relax his tense muscles.

By the time he dried off and got dressed in sweatpants and another of his favorite Avengers t-shirts (that of course also had Thor on it), his exhaustion from battling the aliens and healing his brother had completely caught up with him, and he found that Tommy had apparently changed the sheets, since the other ones had gotten blood on them, and now Tommy was fast asleep half on the bed, his legs dangling off, as if he'd simply sat down on the edge of the bed waiting, but had eventually accidentally leaned backwards against the mattress and nodded off.

Billy smiled slightly. "Where my phone?" he mumbled to himself, looking around his room. "I need a picture of this."

He was in the process of digging through his backpack when Teddy padded into the room.

"What're you doing?" Teddy asked, leaning on the door frame and watching as Billy huffed and shoved the backpack back into his closet, before standing up and crossing over to search the clutter on his desk.

"Phone," Billy answered. He gestured to his white-haired twin on the bed. "Photo. I've never seen Tommy sleep before. Who knows when or where he usually sleeps. I should probably ask him. Maybe I left my phone downstairs?"

"Leave it," Teddy said, walking over to the bed and picking Tommy up, shifting the speedster so that he was lying fully on the bed, and in the right direction. "I don't think Tommy would appreciate you taking a photo of him sleeping. He'd think you were a stalker or something. Besides," Teddy gave a small, tired smile, "I think he has the right idea. I'm downright exhausted. That battle was intense."

"Yeah," Billy agreed, stumbling over and climbing onto his bed, settling down next to his twin. He patted the bed on his other side, and Teddy lay down beside him and immediately became Billy's pillow.

Tommy, seeming to unconsciously sense their body heat, rolled over in his sleep and snuggled against his brother's side.

* * *

"Whatthehell?!" Tommy yelped, as he woke up and realized that he was half draped over his twin's chest with Billy's arm around him, while Billy himself was using Teddy as a pillow, and _no way _did Tommy want to be involved in their snuggle-fest. He jerked away from them and tumbled onto the floor with a _thump! _which succeeded in completely waking up the two lovebirds, if they hadn't already been woken by Tommy's shout.

"Tommy, what?" Billy groaned, rolling over to the side of the bed to look down at his twin as Tommy scrambled to his feet. "Did you have to wake up and wake us up too? It's the middle of the night."

It was, too, Tommy realized, as he dashed across the dark room to glance out the curtains and see the moon hanging suspended in the dark violet sky, and the digital clock on Billy's dresser read: 3:26:54 AM.

"Yeah, Tommy, go back to sleep," Teddy grumbled from the other side of the bed.

"I didn't mean to fall asleep in the first place," Tommy huffed, whizzing over to the closet to see if Billy had a pair of running shoes he could steal. "Especially not in Billy's bed, and _especially _not cuddling with you two, because that is _totally_ awkward."

"Oh come on," Billy said, pushing himself onto his elbows. "This is perfectly chaste and platonic cuddling."

"I don't do _any _cuddling," Tommy said, finding a pair of running shoes, black with red laces, and then zooming over to Billy's dresser to look for a pair of socks, preferably socks that matched.

"You're cuddly when you're asleep," Billy pointed out, and Tommy turned his head to glare at his twin, before grabbing a pair of socks and shutting the dresser, pulling the socks and shoes onto his feet.

"Hey," Billy called, as Tommy turned to leave, "Where do you usually sleep? Like, where do you stay? Where do you go home to?"

Tommy stilled at the question, pausing half a moment, before scoffing, "Who needs a home?"

"Tommy—" Billy started, but Tommy was already gone, a streak in the night that stirred up leaves with a cold gust of wind and left the sound of phantom footsteps a couple minutes behind him.

* * *

_**THE END.**_

* * *

**Kind of an unsatisfying ending, I know XP But it felt like the right place, and I just wanted to keep this fic nice and short. I actually have an idea for a really long, incredibly complicated plot idea for a Young Avengers story... that I don't know if I'm ever gonna get around to writing... **

**But anyways. If anybody read this ********(there's like practically nobody in this fandom!), ** I'd love to hear your thoughts! 


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